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How to draw a horse using simple shapes

I’m excited to share one of the best secrets to drawing. It is about finding simple shapes! You may think that you cannot possibly draw a horse, but you can. Just follow a few simple steps…

Every animal is made up of simple shapes such as circles, rectangles, cylinders and lines. Horses are no different. When you start drawing, do the first three steps very softly, because you will be erasing most of these lines later.

Step 1. We are going to begin with finding the overall lines in a horse’s figure: two circles for the head and two circles for the body. Then, we connect all of the circles with lines.

Step 2. Now we add the legs, ears and tail. Again, we are looking for simple shapes. Two circles for each joint on the legs and then we connect them with lines. I use triangles for ears and some flowing lines for the tail.

Step 3. Now for the slightly harder step: detailing! We want to make our lines a little darker now. It can help to find a picture of a horse to look at, but you can also just use my drawing. Look at how I have followed the overall shape that we constructed in the first two steps. I add a mane, an eye and nostril. I also add some light shading and details to bring more life to the drawing.

Lastly, I erase the construction lines. And there we have it! We have drawn a horse.

When I was young, I loved horses. In fact, it went beyond love. I was obsessed. The walls of my elf dwelling were covered in pictures of horses and ponies—I counted them once, and I had over 300. One day, my mother gave me a book called How to Draw 100 Horses and practicing drawing horses over and over helped me understand some of the essentials of drawing.